We've been teasing a big announcement for months and months. We haven't been allowed to talk about it. But ladies and gentlemen, today is the day. Get ready. Here we go.
Coming up right now on the TV Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.
Welcome to the Clearview Today Show. We're so glad you're joining us here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time today, we want to say welcome to the show. Thank you for joining us, and we're going to let you know exactly who's talking to you.
Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show, Dr. Shah. The day is finally come. This is it.
This is it. We've been teasing it for months. We've been talking about this big announcement coming out. And just to commemorate this occasion, we've brought someone very, very special. Absolutely.
Absolutely. So, on my right, I don't know which angle it is on the show on your screen. I'm so nervous, I can't get it straight. Is Dr. Maurice Robinson here with us, who is my mentor, professor.
I did my PhD work under him, and it's a joy to have you here today. Yes, glad to be here. Amen. All right. Thank you for being here with us.
We've been talking about this for a long time. And, Dr. Ja, it's funny, we've been talking about this announcement that's coming out that's going to change the game. And here we are. I got no clue how to even announce it.
How do you segue into that? How do you segue into something this monumental? Do you want to take the reins? I can. Let's see.
So, so, so, you know, you just got to tease it a little bit more. There you go.
So, the year is 1996.
Okay.
Okay, 1996. I am trying to get into the Greek class, and you know, because I have a work schedule to maintain, and I cannot get into the class I wanted to get into.
So, I'm making my way back from the race star's office, and I ran into a professor I had seen at the student orientation, and that was Maurice Robinson. And so, I said, Hey, Dr. Robinson, he said, Hey, so how's everything? I said, Well, it's kind of it is what it is. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to work out this work schedule because I cannot get into.
Your class, because that would have worked perfectly for my work schedule to go to the class. I think it was an eight o'clock class. And then by 10 o'clock, I'm headed to Durham to work. And he said, What do you mean? I said, I think your class is closed.
It's full for Greek. And he said, Oh, come with me.
So he took me back to the registrar's office and said, You know, let this young man back in the class. And so I was like, Well, thank you so much.
Well, anyways, I showed up for class and I was nervous about studying Greek and you know all that.
So I have all my note cards ready to memorize. And of course, we start Greek, and then time to time, Dr. Robinson would sort of go off on a tangent and talk about. Byzantine priority and Critical text and reason eclecticism. And I'm like, w what is all this?
I have no idea.
Now, Dr. Robinson, you're not the type to go off on tangents in your class, are you? I had a degree in rabbit chasing.
So I'm like, what are we talking about? Because I have no idea. And there are students who can, you know, are asking questions, talking. And then I understood, oh, this is about the Greek text and variants and all that.
So, anything, anyway, long story short, I ended up doing my PhD under Dr. Robinson. But the announcement I'm nervous, man. My heart is beating. Ah, I hold in my hand.
The New Testament in the original Greek Byzantine text form 2026 edition, published by Clearview Press. And Dr. Robinson, do you have a copy as well? We do. We got one right here.
And it's the same one, yeah.
So hardback edition and Smithstone, and it looks really nice, but you probably can't see it on screen, but it really looks nice, and it's got a nice readable Porson Greek font in it, and it's got an apparatus of the different variants that are in the Nissel editions and the Munster-based Edidio Critica Maior. And so you can compare our text directly with the text that is used just about everywhere else, the Nissilalan and the UBS text, and their basis for that. Amen. I want to ask this because I think for everyone who is in your field of text criticism, anyone who is in the field of biblical scholarship knows this is a monumental release. For anyone who's listening to this who is not, they would say, okay, so that's your big announcement.
You're releasing a book. This is your book. Can you explain what this is? Why it's important and really why it's a game changer for what we do as a text critics.
Well, I can get the ball rolling and then I'm going to let Dr. Robinson chase it around the field and put it in the goal.
Well, this is a text which is known as the Robinson-Pierre Pond text. I mean, it's the first, I believe, came out in 1991, and then it's been updated a couple times. But it is the Byzantine, this is the Greek New Testament text from a Byzantine text form perspective.
So, Dr. Robinson, you could tell us a little bit about what it takes to get this and how you feel about what we have here with us. And why this isn't just a book. Right.
Well, You have basically two different types of critical texts that are out there. One of them is the Nestle Island text, also the same text in the United Bible Society's text. They have the same text, and it is primarily based on what. Originally, it was termed to be mostly an Alexandrian type of text, and that is represented by a minority of manuscripts. And they think, the ones the editors of that think that the minority is more likely original than the vast majority of manuscripts.
And the Byzantine text, which is what this new edition has, is representative of virtually 80% or more of the existing manuscripts. And we had come out with earlier editions and Our first edition was in 1991, and that was just preliminary. Then we had a more formal one come out in hardback, just like this one, in 2005. And People have been wanting another hardback since 2005. And what we had come out after that, we had a Reader's Edition come out in 2010, but that was not just the Greek text with the variant readings like this.
The Reader's Edition did not have the variant readings. It had definitions and verb parsings and things like that instead.
So the next edition to come out was in 2018, and it was a paperback. And the problem with a paperback is it's glue-bound, and if you use it heavily, it'll start falling apart. That's right. And so we needed another. Hardback that has the signatures Smith Sewn so it can be good for another 20 years of use.
And this is the first edition since 2005 that has actually been a good Smith Sewn hardback. That's incredible.
So it's very important to be able to have this for the next generation that's coming up. And by the way, with the supposed Claims that from the Nesalalan people that there is a new appreciation for the Byzantine text. It doesn't mean they accept it, but with a new appreciation, They have actual statements, for example, in their textual commentary on the UBS text. Hugh Houghton is actually saying that the best representative of the Byzantine text out there is the Robinson-Pierpont text. That's right.
I'm so glad we are getting some praise, and it's not just from him. We've got praise from Dr. Quarles at Southeastern Seminary, who says our text is the zenith of the Byzantine text point. High praise. High praise.
We're getting some good praise, and that's what I. Was reporting on in the conference that we just had. That's right. You know, since our show has reached a much wider audience in the past couple of years with Pray.com, TBN Plus, a lot of the people who listen to this show might be new Christians, or they may be surface-level Christians who have, you know, are just starting to get deeper.
So do you want to explain to someone who's never heard of it before what is the Robinson Pierpont text?
Well, first of all, the people that you're talking about, if they don't know Greek, they don't want this. Because except for the preface, the rest of it's in Greek.
So obviously, if you don't know Greek, you don't want it. But. If you do know Greek, this text offers a contrast to the predominantly Alexandrian text of the Nesalaland and UBS traditions. And how much do they differ? They actually differ throughout the entire New Testament in somewhere around 8,000 places.
Wow.
Now, most of these are not even translatable into English. But if somebody is working with the Greek and they have only, say, the UBS text or the Nesalaland text, They have some of the Byzantine variants listed in their apparatus, but not all of them. Whereas with our text, you have in the main text the full Byzantine text. You have some divided Byzantine readings where we have marginal variants that are in our footnotes. And then we have every variant from the Nessel Island and the ECM text in our footnotes, so you can do a direct comparison with them.
And that becomes extremely helpful for those that are curious about where do they differ, how much do they differ, and then if you know Greek, then you can look at them and say, well, that's translatable or that's not translatable. And obviously the non-translatable don't affect. Our English versions, but the translatable ones do. And you've got. In English Bible translations, you'll have some footnotes here and there that say some manuscripts read this way, and some will say other manuscripts read other ways.
If you know the Greek, you can go right back from those kind of footnotes into this text and see exactly where they differ, how the wording differs. And it may be a different word, it may be a different order of words, maybe different emphasis, and this makes it excellent for comparison. And for those that are taking Greek in Bible college or seminary, this becomes a very valuable resource. Amen. Amen.
So, Dr. Shah, tell us a little bit about your involvement, right? What does this achievement mean to you? How did you get involved in this specific 2026 project? How does Clearview Press come about?
Just give us, I guess, an overview of how we got to this and us going forward.
Well, Dr. Robinson and I had talked about the possibility of having a RP or Robinson Pier upon text that will just have compared with the critical text readings. That's pretty much what we were wanting. Nothing else, just basically where the Byzantine text form differs with the critical text. And because, you know, for Academics, that's what they're looking for.
They're looking for just tell me what that is. And so this is clean, it's clear, it gets right to the point. And I think scholars want something like this.
So that's scholars' students, pastors with Greek understanding, they need something they can just say, okay, so this is where the ECM says this, and this is where the NA says that, and this is what the Byzantine text is about.
So that was something we discussed. And so through various circumstances, this came about. And Clearview Press, I talked to Ryan, who's the head of that, and I said, could we attempt this? And he said, we'll make it happen. Absolutely.
And so he talked to the team, and it has been an incredible Amount of work. I mean, it's, I am blown away when I saw the sample copy, I was blown away. and how sleek and how good it is and How clear Okay. And I mean, it's unbelievable. I mean, what do you think, Dr.
Robinson? I keep talking. I know you can keep talking about it, but the one thing that is really important that needs to be reiterated is that this represents not just our opinion. Right.
Whereas if you're dealing with the critical text from Nestle Island or UBS, they have a committee that made decisions on each variant reading, saying, at this point, we prefer this reading, at this point, we prefer this. Our text is not a matter of. Infinite decisions, ours represents strictly what you find in the vast majority of Greek New Testament manuscripts that have been copied through the centuries up to the time of the invention of printing. That's right. So that's what this is.
And I need to also clarify: we call it the Robinson-Pierpont text. I'm the Robinson. Pierpont was actually my co-editor, and he died in 2003. But he and I worked on our edition that came out in 2005. We worked on it for 28 years to get it all compiled, organized, and edited.
And then it was typeset back in 2005 by Chilton Publishing Company. And that one went out of print. And that's why there's never been a hardback available from us for all that time. That's why this is so important. Amen.
Dr. Robinson, talk for a little bit about, you know, having worked on the original, obviously Robinson-Pierpont, and then to see this one coming. out in 2026. What does this mean for you? What do you feel when you hold this in your hand?
And how do you see this impacting text criticism moving forward?
Well, first of all, obviously it's the New Testament. It's the Word of God.
So from a theological standpoint, I find this to be very important, that actually I'm holding in my hand the Word of God as you would find it in almost all manuscripts. And even though individual scribes in an individual manuscript might make a blunder here and there, they may change your reading unintentionally or even intentionally, this is what the overall general consensus is made. And this is what a fellow named Bentley did way back in the 1700s. He said, if you've got two manuscripts and they disagree, what do you do? You bring in a third manuscript.
And if that doesn't settle it, then you bring in a fourth, a fifth, and keep adding to it. And what you're dealing with now is we've got, say, in the gospel, In any one gospel, you may have about 1,600 manuscripts available at any point, and this has given you what the general consensus of those 1,600 happen to be without. Saying, well, this one manuscript here reads this way, this one manuscript reads this other way, and we're not having to deal with continually varying readings. We're looking at here is just what the overall consensus among the Greek manuscripts as transmitted over. At least a 1500-year and maybe more period by the scribes happens to be.
It's a consensus, and if you showed this to anybody that was Greek, Greek Orthodox, or somebody, they would look at this and say, Yes, it looks just about like what we have in our church. That's incredible.
Also, to mention, there are some changes that have been brought in based on the differences between the two. 2005 edition. To 2018 and now to 2026, all those are incorporated. There's not tons, I mean, just a few, but they have been incorporated into this edition right here. Am I right, Dr.
Robert? And there's very few changes. Right.
Because, again, the overall consensus stays about the same, and the only changes that actually were made from the 2005 main text are those where the Byzantine manuscripts themselves divided nearly equally. And some of the ones that were in the margin before we've put into the main text, and the main text then went back into the margins. And so it was just a few little shifts. And we have a list of them in the preface. Yes, it is.
And I don't think there's more than about eight or ten or something like that. Basically, because the overall consensus remains the same. We're not ever changing. And this is part of the problem with the critical text. They are continually changing because of their different evaluation of the evidence that they Want to rely on a variant here or variant there.
And we just don't have that same problem. That's right. Dr. Shaw, why don't you talk for a little bit about what this means for you? You know, talking about your story of going and sitting in this Greek class and being like, I just don't understand anything that's being talked about right now.
To fast forward to today, directly contributing to the 2026 release of the Byzantine text form in a major, major way. What does this represent for you as you're holding it in your hand?
Well, having done my PhD in New Testament textual criticism, to be able to help with the preface as an updated preface as well, that is something that most text critics will never get to do in their lifetime. I mean, there's a few who get to, who are working with a critical text or things like that, but most, even with a text critical degree, will not be able to do that.
So it's a great, great honor to be able to do this with the Robinson-Pierre Pont. Text, so that's very special. Yeah, very, very special. And you know how much I teach and talk about textual criticisms to be able to say, hey, I had a part in getting this out. That's a big deal.
That's a big deal. Absolutely. There just are not many editors of a Greek New Testament that are out there. I love it. Dr.
Shah, Dr. Robinson, any final thoughts? Anything we want to wrap up on? And we've got about 10 minutes left in the show, but maybe just something to leave the listeners with why this is so monumental. Maybe someone's listening to this.
They're a brand new Christian. Text criticism is way over my head, but it's something that I am passionate about. I'm passionate about the Word of God and being able to trust the Word of God. What would you say to them?
So, my dissertation was regarding the changing goalpost of New Testament textual criticism, which is regarding the original text. Over the past, I would say, three to four decades, there has been an assault, I would say, against whether, against the original text, can we reach back to the original text of the New Testament? And I've often talked about Bart Ehrman and others who have said that, no, it's lost beyond ever. Regaining the original text. And so.
You know, at one time people said, Oh, textual criticism, that's an old discipline. Nobody cares about it. But nobody anticipated books like Misquoting Jesus that comes around, becomes a New York Times bestseller. And then every person on the street now talks about textual variants and how we have more variants than we actually have words in the New Testament. You know, when I began my PhD work, I never, I thought my dissertation would sit in a corner somewhere, nobody would even care.
And all of a sudden, People are asking questions in churches: like, what about all those variants in the Bible? I've heard that there is a different reading.
So The discipline of textual criticism, unfortunately, but Has found new life. People are discussing, and there are people right now with a microphone podcast who are talking about textual variants. And especially the younger generation, they flock to these places because they go, oh, there's another text, or there's another reading, or the church had a, you know, this conspiracy going on on hiding things. And you think, no such thing. Right.
You know, there's no such thing.
So. I think This is a perfect time for something like this to come out to say, no, let's talk. Let's talk about this. Let's talk about the original text. Let's talk about variants.
And then explain to them why we believe what we believe, that we do have in our hands the Word of God. Yeah, right? Absolutely. And we would consider, from our perspective regarding Byzantine priority, that this text, from our perspective, we consider the closest approximation to the original as it was transmitted through the centuries, rather than, again, eclectically being produced like the critical text from a decision made on one variant unit and then a decision made on another variant unit where the manuscript supporting one may not be the same manuscript supporting another.
So there is an issue of inconsistency there, whereas ours will show a consistency throughout the centuries among the Greek manuscripts maintaining the Byzantine text form. And if people are looking to say, well, how does this affect me? And I don't know Greek, the simple answer is get something like the New King James Version and set it side to side with, say, the ESV or the NIV or something else, and you will start seeing in some places they don't read alike. They read quite differently, and some words are missing, some whole verses are missing that are present in the Byzantine, but not in the critical text. And the question will come up: well, why are those verses missing?
Well, it's because they have selected readings that have the minority support that omit certain verses, whereas the Byzantine tradition maintained the text of those verses. That's not to say that the Byzantine doesn't sometimes have short readings, and they sometimes even are missing some verses that would be, say, in the New King James or the King James, but Anytime a verse is missing among our Byzantine text, it's because the vast majority of Greek manuscripts don't have that verse present. Right.
And there's only a few that are like that. Yeah. And yeah, and educate yourself. Don't just find things on TikTok or social media. There's more reputable sources out there.
So once you start really researching, write to us on Clearview Today. Yes, of course. We're glad to send you some reputable information that you can actually count on, not just tidbits here or tidbits there by somebody just trying to make waves. Yeah, that's exactly why we named the show Clearview Today. We want to help you see this stuff much more clearly.
Not everybody who has a microphone and presents themselves as an expert is an expert, believe it or not. People lie on the internet. And I think a lot about the things that we choose to care about as Christians. You know, Dr. Shah, I didn't even think about it until you read that paper on Acts 8:38, where it was the Ethiopian eunuch, right?
And you came to the conclusion. And I thought for sure you were going to say, no, that's original. But you came to the conclusion, no, it's not original, and yet it's in the Bible. And there were definitely people who were like, wait, so is verse 38 the word of God or not? It's verse 37.
Verse 37. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. But That verse If you want the actual information, I don't remember the exact number of manuscripts that omit that verse or that have that verse, but. The ones that have the verse are about 60, somewhere around there, that contain the verse, and there's 500 or 600. Which is the vast Byzantine majority that do not have the verse.
Right.
Which tends to suggest to you nobody omitted it accidentally. It was inserted intentionally. And why? Because. In the later centuries, after the first century, there was a practice in the baptismal ritual that people would make a confession before baptism, and so it was a perfect place for someone to insert a confession in there.
But there's no reason that the Ethiopian eunuch had to make a confession. The Ethiopian eunuch's already asking Philip, he says, see, here's water. What prevents me from being baptized?
Well, why would he even ask that question unless, number one, he'd already heard the gospel, number two, he had responded to the gospel, and number three, he'd already been told about baptism.
So he didn't have to have Philip say to him, if you believe with all your heart, and then Philip says, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That's the later baptismal practice that has been put into that, just so people in the churches, in some of them, I mean, we're talking only about the 60 manuscripts or so, they say, well, yeah, that's the way we do it in our church. And It just wasn't there originally because if it was, it would have been in the vast majority of manuscripts. And that's something, you know, you hear good messages on it, but that text should not be there. And so it only gives ammunition to those who are against the faith to say, see, you are so ignorant, you don't even know that that passage is not in the scripture, in the Bible, and you're preaching on it.
Right.
So, but when you're aware of it and you understand the issues involved, you go, no, we don't need that passage. If it's not there, it's not there. And we can still believe in our heart Jesus is Lord, but we don't have to add a scripture in there to make it happen. And I encourage people to read, read the Bible, but also obey the Bible. It's also very important to do that.
And hopefully, this beautiful purple volume. Why purple? Because. Uh Our publishing team came to me and said, What if we chose purple since that's a Byzantine color? I said, I don't have a problem with them.
And when Doctor Robinson heard about it, he said, I love it. I said, okay. I'm glad that the purple is my favorite color, and golly, it just looks good. Doesn't it? It looks great.
I love it. The New Testament in the original Greek Byzantine text form 2026. Available for pre-order right now. That's right. Dr.
Robinson, thank you so much for being on the show today. What an honor to have you here as we announce this wonderful work and excited to put some copies in your hands as well. Right.
It's going to bless you. It's going to bless your ministry. It's going to bless your pastoral team and your staff. It's going to bless a new generation of young scholars who are coming up learning to fall in love with the Bible. That's right.
Guys, make sure you join us tomorrow. Same time, same station. We're going to be diving into another great topic here on the Clearview Today show. Thanks again to all of our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And if today's your first time listening to the show, we're glad you're here.
You picked a great one to jump in on Monday. That's right. Make sure you join us for tomorrow's conversation. Don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show anywhere podcasting content can be found. And you can always support us financially at Abadanshaw.com forward slash gift.
That's right. And don't forget to check out our new show on iTunes: How to Read Biblical Hebrew with Dr. Abadan Shah. It's a video podcast that's going to teach you how to start with the Hebrew alphabet and then go up through grammar and syntax and all of the great things to have you reading the Old Testament in its original language. It's available right now on iTunes, and there's new episodes dropping every single week.
So make sure you leave a review and let us know how it's helping you. That's right. We love you guys. We'll see you tomorrow on Theory Today.
